Story [Multi-Fandom] UDC VII: Drabbles Unchained (Week 20: Pushing Daisies)

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Title: Vowel Movement
Fandom: Pushing Daisies
Rating: G
Notes: The challenge theme was "Father."


The man on the slab glanced toward Emerson. "'E's laik the fa'thuh oon o'er therr."

Ned and Chuck turned to each other and then to Emerson, who stared at each of them in turn, as all three tried to mentally translate. "You think I'm some kind of priest?" wondered Emerson.

"Nay!" The man looked to Ned. "Neauh!" He nodded to Chuck. "Fa'." And finally to Emerson. "Fa'thuh. Dee ya no oonduhstaind semple Eenglush?"

Emerson shot back, "What kind of stupid accent is that, anyway? Where are you supposed to be from?"

Before the man could respond, Ned touched him again.


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Title: Uno, Dos, Tres
Fandom: Pushing Daisies
Rating: G
Notes: The challenge theme was "Son."


Chuck paused partway out of the car. "Do you hear that?"

Farther up the sidewalk, Emerson turned around. "Cuban music in a Cuban neighborhood?" he asked, feigning shock. "Go figure."

"Listen to the tres," she told him.

Sure enough, the guitarlike instrument was out of tune in a way all too familiar to the detective. He swore loudly. "It's Rodrigo's!"

* * *

The man they'd found playing Rodrigo's tres in the club shrank further back into the booth. "It just fell from the sky!" he moaned.

"What kind of moronic story is that?" yelled Emerson.

A true one as it turned out.


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Title: Moo Shot
Fandom: Pushing Daisies
Rating: G
Notes: The challenge theme was "Husband."


Emerson sat across from the grieving widow. "Mrs. O'Riordan," he said, "I have bad news and I don't even know what kind of news."

"Just tell me, did Bossie kill Edgar?"

Emerson nodded. "But she didn't mean to."

* * *

The facts were these: Bossie, the O'Riordans' (stage name, O'Leary) trick-shooting cow, had fired the fatal bullet. But her intended target was one Martin Gable, their sometime rival, who was holding Edgar at gunpoint. The bullet went straight to Gable's heart... and ricocheted off his pacemaker into poor Edgar.

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"Legally she's innocent," Emerson said, "but I doubt she's been one happy cow."


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Title: Arrivederci Alfredo
Fandom: Pushing Daisies
Rating: G
Notes: The challenge theme was "Brother."


"I don't want to talk about it," insisted Olive as she wiped off the already spotless counter.

"But you and Alfredo looked so cute together," Chuck said. "What happened?"

Olive gave up. "Fine. Emerson offered to help Alfredo find his birth father. Unfortunately, the father he found was mine."

"But you know who your father is," Chuck replied. And then it clicked. "You mean you and Alfredo are siblings?"

"Only half!" Olive snapped. "And not really. The blood tests came back negative."

"Still, just the possibility had to cool your romantic ardor."

Olive nodded. "You can say that again, sister!"


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Title: Goodbye, Mr. Phipps
Fandom: Pushing Daisies
Rating: G
Notes: The challenge theme was "Teacher."


Matthew Phipps had been thirty-three years, nine months, and four days old - and employed at the Longborough School for Boys for sixteen days, already becoming young Ned's favorite teacher - when a breakfast sausage cut his academic career short.

Young Ned had come to class early that morning and so was the first to find the body. For one fleeting moment, as he heard the hated Mr. Bullthrush storming down the hall, young Ned was tempted to resurrect Mr. Phipps, and for longer than a minute.

"What are you doing here?" bellowed Mr. Bullthrush.

And then the moment was snatched away.